FAS Newsletter Federation of Astronomical Societies http://www.fedastro.org.uk Another Successful FAS Convention he 2009 FAS Annual Convention was Jerry’s talk was entitled Apollo Revisited T once again held at The Institute of As- and he took us through the Apollo project tronomy, Cambridge. In spite of not being from the early Saturn rocket launches to the the most convenient location for many people Moon Walks to the final days of the project. it does seem to be the preferred venue for He felt this was a timely subject as we were such events. celebrating 400 years since the invention of After refreshments, kindly organised by the telescope and 40 years since the first land- members of Cambridge AS, the event got ing on the Moon. underway with a talk by Dr Haley Gomez of It was refreshing to hear a talk illustrated Cardiff University. Her talk, Herschel - Un- with slides, instead of the more common veiling the cool universe, described the PowerPoint presentations. The phrase ’next Herschel infra-red telescope and its objectives. slide please’ is rarely heard these days. Jerry With its 3.5metre diameter mirror it will also told the gathering about his recent trip to collect long-wavelength radiation from the China to view the eclipse. coldest and most distant parts of the Uni- The AGM of the FAS was held next and verse. In particular, using infra-red this will be Richard Sargent led the meeting with aplomb. able to ’see’ through the dust clouds which In addition to normal AGM business a signifi- frustrate most other forms of telescope. cant action was to agree to move the year end Lord Professor Martin Rees Dr Gomez teased us by saying that some of the FAS. This date was delayed by half a exciting results were being obtained, in par- year, which had the effect of giving all mem- has stood down. Eric was warmly thank for all ticular related to Cass A, but giving more ber societies a half-year holiday on their sub- his past services. The publications distribution information was ‘more than her job was scriptions. The reason for this change being will now be undertaken by Steve Williams, worth. I am sure many of the audience will the need for FAS Council to calculate the whilst the insurance duties will be taken over watch the astronomy press and relevant web- required subscription levels once the insur- by the Hon Secretary, Shaun O’dell. sites with great interest for further announce- ance premium has been established, rather During the lunch interval delegates took ments on the progress of this exciting project. than the previous system where the premiums the opportunity to browse around the various The second talk of the day was due to be had to be ’guessed’, with the inevitable risk trade stand and many were wondering how Planetary Observing by Damian Peach. How- that entailed. they would get this telescope or that other ever Damian was unfortunately indisposed Eric Hutton, who after many years of expensive goodie past ’her indoors’ without and so Jerry Workman stood in at the last distributing the Newsletter and other publica- being caught!! minute. tions and also handling the insurance scheme, The first talk in the afternoon, Galaxy Zoo, was presented by Dr Chris Lintott. He started by taking us from the Big Bang to the expansion of the Universe and to the Sloan Great Wall. Dr Lintott explained that there was a real problem in analysing galaxies and computer model have proved to be quite unreliable. It was for this reason that the website www.galaxyzoo.com/ had been created. This allows amateur astronomers and even the general populace to contribute to the profes- sionals by classifying galaxies. He described it as Citizen Science. He also explained that as a direct result of this work a new type of galaxy had been established—the so-called Galaxy Zoo PEA. Immediately after this talk Richard Sargent (Continued on page 2) President Treasurer Secretary Newsletter Editor Richard Sargent Peter Cooke Shaun O’Dell Frank Johns 4 Bache Drive, Upton, Haven Cottage, Frithville, 147 Queen St, Swinton, 38 Chester Road, Newquay, Chester. CH2 2JB Boston, Lincs, PE22 7DS Mexborough, S Yorkshire. Cornwall. TR7 2RH [email protected] 01205 750868 S64 6NG 01637 878020 [email protected] 0121 288 4373 [email protected] Issue 92 Winter 2009 [email protected] Published by the Federation of Astronomical Societies ISSN 1361 - 4126 Presidents Spot reetings to you. I’ll begin my article by accomplished talks he has given them over the G briefly mentioning a few things from years. As well as giving talks, this man has also the FAS Convention & AGM held at the served on the council of the Society for Popu- Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge on 3rd lar Astronomy, lectured at their meetings and October. This was a great success with more written for Popular Astronomy and is a local than 120 attendees who enjoyed four excel- officer for the CfDS. lent and enjoyable talks, and many trade This year’s worthy recipient of the Eric stands to spend their money at! Already we Zucker award is Jerry Workman of Loughton are starting to plan the 2010 Convention & AS. On behalf of societies in the Federation AGM and would welcome your suggestions of Astronomical Societies thank you very on location and speakers. much Jerry for your work. In my report to the AGM I noted the ab- Most of us know individuals in our astro- sence of new volunteers for service on the nomical societies who do an awful lot to pro- FAS Council. In 2010 we will be making mote astronomy to the public and/or give increased efforts to secure volunteers from talks to societies and/or are active in the cam- member societies for Council posts. Your FAS paign for dark skies etc. If you know such an Jerry Workman receiving the needs you! individual and think they deserve wider recog- Eric Zucker Award Each year at the AGM the FAS presents nition write to us and tell us about them and the ‘Eric Zucker ‘award to someone who has their work and we might publish it in the UK astronomical societies up and down the made a great contribution to Astronomy edu- newsletter! land have increased their public outreach cation and public outreach. This year the By the time you read this newsletter the efforts during IYA 2009, and those efforts will award was given to an amateur astronomer International Year of Astronomy will be draw- still carry on after IYA is over. Give yourselves who has been and continues to be a great ing to a close. Given all the problems going a big pat on the back. We can also take pride promoter of astronomy to the public and to on in the world which dominate the news, in celebrating 400 years of the telescope, that other amateur astronomers. A man who for at and given ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘The X marvellous invention that gives us amateur least the last 15 years has given many lectures Factor’, IYA 2009 was never going to be high astronomers so much pleasure and allows us to astronomical societies up and down the in the media’s coverage! Hopefully though the to see such wonderful sights in the night sky. land – from Cumbria to Kent from the SE to efforts of amateur and professional astrono- Enjoy, and best wishes and clear skies to you the SW, through the Midlands to East Anglia. mers in IYA 2009 have increased the people all. Many societies have been grateful for the of the world’s interest in Astronomy. In the Richard Sargent (Continued from page 1) A New Publication on Practical Spectroscopy decided to have a go at spectroscopy and all astronomical discoveries have been made with I so purchased a Star Analyser 100 from the spectroscope. Paton Hawksley for a very reasonable £81. The basic challenge facing the novice is where However that was the easy bit. to start. What equipment will I need? Where can I I then took my first image and then real- find a spectroscope? How do I process the CCD ised that processing this was far from straight- image? How do I analyze my first spectrum? These forward. In order to try to learn more I questions and more are addressed in this book. It joined a couple of the yahoo-groups specialis- provides up to date information on equipment, A vital job—folding raffle tickets ing in spectroscopy and was contacted by Ken spectroscopes and methods available to the ama- Harrison offering friendly advice and assis- teur, and more importantly “How to…”. tance. Even with his help and searching the By using amateur telescopes, mountings and presented the Eric Zucker Award to Jerry internet I realised this part of astronomy CCD cameras currently available, this book will Workman for his efforts in amateur astron- seemed very much a ‘black art’. It was when I show how, with the addition of a simple spectro- omy over the past 15 years or so, by giving asked Ken whether there were any practical scope we can observe and record spectra which talks in many parts of the country and giving books on the subject that he informed me reveals the temperature, composition and age of support to many astro-societies and others. that he was in course of writing such a book, stars, the nature of the glowing gases in nebulae The final talk of the day, What will the which is due to be published some time in and even the existence of other exo-planets circling next generation of telescopes tell us, was 2010.